Virginia Group Proposes Alternative Routes for Atlantic Coast Pipe
There’s nothing more frustrating than engaging in a debate with people who fight dirty. The vast majority Big Green groups fight dirty when it comes to opposing natural gas drilling and infrastructure projects. They attempt use arguments about dirty air and dirty water and pollution to confuse the general population. But they can’t back up their words with any proof. The antis true motivation often stays hidden in the background–an irrational hatred of using fossil fuels of any kind. But they can’t help it–their true motivation often leaks out in their statements. There is no reasoning with an unreasonable person. So when we notice a group of antis that actually uses rational, well-thought-out arguments, it’s very much the exception to the rule–and worth noting. We have respect for those on the other side of the fossil fuel debate when they fight fair and challenge us using science and facts instead of innuendo and outright lies. Such is the case with a group opposing the existing route of Dominion’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project through Virginia. The group, called Friends of Wintergreen, submitted a detailed, 128-page analysis of four alternate routes for the ACP to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) using analysis from national environmental, legal and pipeline engineering firms. Friends of Wintergreen is not demanding that ACP not get built–they’re recommending other routes and supporting their recommendations with lots of analysis. Cool. We applaud them. Here’s what the group said in a recent press release, along with a copy of their 128-page analysis sent to FERC…
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Since announcing the project in 2012, the Constitution Pipeline has handed out more than $2 million in community grants to fire departments, police departments and a variety of nonprofit organizations that benefit the community. Recently New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo decided to block the Constitution Pipeline to placate his radical left supporters (see 
There’s an old saying that goes like this: “Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.” Not long ago MDN reported that Eclipse Resources had drilled what is believed to be the longest horizontal well (on land) in the world–the 3.5 mile “Purple Hayes” Utica Shale well (see 
When did it become “vindictive” to prosecute criminals? That’s what we’re supposed to believe about the prosecution of a radicalized, anti-fossil fuel environmentalist who was just, after nearly one and a half years, sentenced to serve 15 days in jail for lying, falsely claiming local police assaulted her. In February 2015 Heather Doyle, a radical “activist” climbed a crane at the Dominion Cove Point LNG export facility to hang a banner that said, “Dominion get out. Don’t frack Maryland. No gas exports. Save Cove Point.” It’s bad enough that she endangered herself along with another activist who aided her. She also endangered rescue workers and police who had to remove her from the crane. Then Doyle lied to the police and claimed Calvert County Sheriff’s Office deputies assaulted her as they were removing her from the crane SHE climbed up. That’s a very serious charge–especially in this day and age. The police investigated and discovered she was lying, so the District Attorney pressed charges. And it took this long for the case to play out. On May 27, Judge Marjorie Clagett of the Calvert County Circuit Court sentenced Doyle to three months in jail, with all but 15 days suspended, 240 hours of community service, two years of supervised probation, and $165 in court costs. It ain’t much, but it’s a little bit of justice against radicals who frequently break the law in a misguided attempt to protest fossil fuels…
We have nothing against renewable energy like wind and solar, per se. We just want them to compete with other forms of energy, like natural gas–without taxpayer money propping up renewable projects. Well-intentioned companies like Dominion frequently engage in dalliances with wind and solar projects–more of a public relations thing than a real effort at developing such sources. How can we say such a thing? Why be so harsh? Look at the recent announcement from Dominion that the U.S. Department of Energy has just withdrawn a promised $40 million grant the company was going to use to build two advanced-technology, 6-megawatt wind turbines in federal waters about 24 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, VA. At peak production, the two turbines would generate enough electricity to power up to 3,000 homes. It will cost $300 – $380 million to build them. Compare that to a new natural gas-fired electric plant built by Dominion in Virginia that recently went online–the Brunswick Power Station. That plant cost $1.1 billion to build, produces 1,358 megawatts of electricity (even when the wind doesn’t blow) and powers 325,000 homes. So for about trip the cost the natgas plant powers 322,000 more homes than the wind project. That’s what we call a no-brainer–and a perfect illustration of why the government should not be in the business of funding dud wind projects…
In last Thursday’s episode of “As the (Midstream) World Turns” (ATMWT) MDN told you that Williams still wants to marry Energy Transfer Equity (ETE), even though both companies are suing each other over the proposed merger (see 
Every now and again it’s fun to delve into some of the technical aspects of drilling a Marcellus (and Utica) Shale well. We pick up on some of those particulars from a survey conducted by Hart Energy. Hart surveyed Marcellus and Utica drillers and found that, unsurprisingly, what has worked continues to work: When a Marcellus driller drills and fracks a well, the driller uses slickwater and up to 11 million pounds of white sand. What IS surprising to learn is that Utica drillers who had favored ceramic beads instead of sand are moving away from using ceramic beads and toward the Marcellus tried-and-true slickwater with sand approach. Here’s a few more interesting tidbits, including the fact that Halliburton is king of refracks in the Marcellus…
Earlier this month MDN told you about the “Purple Hayes”–a Utica Shale well drilled by Eclipse Resources in Guernsey County, OH that is thought to be the longest shale well every drilled, at 3.5 miles (see 
Recently the proposed merger/buyout of Baker Hughes (BH) by Halliburton crashed and burned (see